Bernie, AOC, and fans

That's some line-up - Bernie, AOC, Joan Baez, Maggie Rogers - Neil Young is somewhere around, too, having been belting out Keep on Rockin in the Free World (of course).  Today was right up there with the Best Ever Rallies of All Time - all 36,000 of us, or more, according to some estimates.  Bernie and AOC were both terrific, as all the press reports attest - but so were the other speakers, especially local congresswoman Eunisses Hernandez.  And the nurses who leapt off the stage when someone in the crowd needed medical attention (it was hot).  And the gospel choir singing Power to the People.  And everyone crowding up the steps of City Hall.  I was lucky, or wise, enough to get there fairly early, so I was probably 20 back from the main stage - and even then was horribly conscious of being short - but it was a great view.

So interesting seeing what points got the loudest cheers/boos.  Oligarchs, insider trading, billionaires, of course. The Los Angeles crowd is one that really, really cares about housing.  And education, at all levels.  And incarcerating and deporting people without due protest.  But also threats to defund PBS/NPR - and, yes, history.  Much enthusiasm for the Gettysburg address, Frederick Douglass, Selma, 1776 and rising up against the monarchy, and FDR.  I'll look forward to teaching my Picturing Democracy course again in the fall ...

But it was HOT.  I was so grateful that they were handing out free water.  And a lot of people, sensibly, had fans.